While autonomous vehicles (such as aerial drones) are in the field supplying customers with goods and services, they often require energy replenishment for their batteries. Replenishment includes physically swapping a charged battery for the depleted battery, or re-charging the depleted battery.
Typically, the replenishment process requires the autonomous vehicle system to either return to its home base, or to travel to some other fixed location in the field. In both situations, there is an inherent inefficiency suffered by the owner of the autonomous vehicle as a result of downtime incurred while the autonomous vehicle travels to the site for replenishment. For example, when the owner is a retailer, the autonomous vehicle cannot deliver packages when its batteries are being replenished resulting in the potential late delivery of packages, increased costs for the retailer, and customer dissatisfaction.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.